Saturday 12th of October saw Watford take 2 teams to round 1 of this years National Arena League. The A team travelled to Hatfield to compete in the Premier Division having gained promotion last year and the B team went to St Albans to compete in League 2.
This was my first team outing with Watford and there’s simply no better place than a loud and competitive Arena League! The team, covered in war paint were loud as the gala got underway.
We had some excellent swims with swimmers from every squad PBing and using their skills to get the team vital points. A special mention must go to the 11&U Girls with 2 3rd place finishes in the relay and 2 individual first places from Tigerlily Donald.
The Performance Squad swimmers stepped up with lots of them having to swim in both their 15&U age group as well as the open age group. I asked and they delivered.
The team finished in 5th place overall on the night out of the 8 teams. Having just been promoted this was a fantastic result and I can’t wait for round 2.
We had two swimmers of the day in the A team; Eleanor Craig got the team off to a great start and despite being 15 swam in the open 200IM the first event of the evening! Our second swimmer of the day was Janhavi Janhavi, despite having a temperature was part of the excellent 11yr old girls team and swam with a smile on her face throughout.

Below is the report for the B team:
What a fantastic night the B team had last night! There was no shortage of team spirit with each and every member contributing to the final overall result of 4th on the night. Our youngest members impressed with their enthusiasm and gutsy swims!
The boys’ 15/U relay was unstoppable, comfortably winning both their relays with not only some incredibly fast splits but tight relay take overs.
A special mention to all the girls who had to swim up an age group (or two!), some of you may have looked a bit small on the blocks but your swims definitely showed that each one of you was a worthy competitor.
Our swimmers of the night were; Joe Coldwell and Chloe Simpson. Both not only came first in their races, but showed amazing team spirit, cheering and supporting other members of their team.

Kind regards,
Matt Paget
Head Coach of Watford Swimming Club

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